It's easy to forget how many great musicals 20th Century Fox has put out, and how varied - from "My Fair Lady" to "the Commitments." One of their very best has just been re-released on DVD: "Call Me Madam"...
Once upon a time, boys and girls, they used to make movies that you were supposed to enjoy. They didn't thrill you, or scare you, or wow you with effects and disasters. They simply gave pleasure by having people sing amusing songs and dance with grace and lightness and ease. Here you have a chance to see the kind of singer - the incomparable Ethel Merman - who could fill a theater without using a microphone, and you could understand every word she sang. And you have a chance to see some of the greatest dancers Hollywood ever knew - Donald O'Connor and Vera Ellen - who advance the love story simply by dancing together. I gotta admit, O'Connor's got a gleam in his eye Astaire never had, and that dance in the wine cellar did more for my imagination than thrashing naked bodies ever did. And I roared every time Merman said "Hello, Harry!" And who knew George Sanders could sing?
This is not life-changing cinema...It's simply wonderful entertainment. And the more I see of today's offerings, the rarer that looks.
Once upon a time, boys and girls, they used to make movies that you were supposed to enjoy. They didn't thrill you, or scare you, or wow you with effects and disasters. They simply gave pleasure by having people sing amusing songs and dance with grace and lightness and ease. Here you have a chance to see the kind of singer - the incomparable Ethel Merman - who could fill a theater without using a microphone, and you could understand every word she sang. And you have a chance to see some of the greatest dancers Hollywood ever knew - Donald O'Connor and Vera Ellen - who advance the love story simply by dancing together. I gotta admit, O'Connor's got a gleam in his eye Astaire never had, and that dance in the wine cellar did more for my imagination than thrashing naked bodies ever did. And I roared every time Merman said "Hello, Harry!" And who knew George Sanders could sing?
This is not life-changing cinema...It's simply wonderful entertainment. And the more I see of today's offerings, the rarer that looks.